Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Psalms 51:1
First of all we are wicked, we are all sick. I am just as broken as you and you are just as broken as me, this world is broken because of sin and only made righteous by the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yehoshua which means YHWH the Lord is salvation. This is who is revealed by God in Christ. The Messiah means the anointed one.
This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent — Jesus Christ. “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. John 17:3, 6
Who did Jesus Christ reveal? God gave his name to Moses I Am YHWH. The Lord. Which name did Jesus Christ reveal? HIS OWN! The Lord is salvation.
Jesus is going to the cross. As soon as this John 17 prayer finishes he is arrested. Look at the last thing he says to the 11 before he prays.
I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” John 16:33
You what? YOU, WILL HAVE TROUBLE. You will have suffering, you will have sickness, you will lose loved ones. Things will go pear shaped, the unexpected will happen. Do we go to church to feel good? To sing songs about what God does for us? For me? I expect a feeling in church? Or, do we go to church to WORSHIP our great God? Do we take communion to be forgiven so we can carry on doing as we please, chasing good feelings or. Do we take communion because we are broken rebellious people and we need to acknowledge the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ was so enough that we need to leave ourselves at the cross, deny ourselves! Pick up up our cross and follow him. Die at the cross, Paul says I die daily 1 Corinthians 15:31. Is that it? We die?
Did Christ stay dead or was he resurrected? Follow him to the cross, he died but he was raised from the dead and he’s still living, still moving. So keep following into life!
Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:10-11
Right, so that is the gospel. How do we respond? Remember John 16:33 you will have trouble. Expect to suffer. Look at Peter and Paul after they received the holy spirit and preached Jesus Christ. They were arrested and beaten. Their response?
So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Acts 5:41, and more …..
For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, Philippians 1:29
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2-3
You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith — more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6-7
Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding — because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin — in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 1 Peter 4:1-2
And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5
Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Psalms 51:8
Is this what we are seeing in our churches? The next piece I’m doing is discipleship, but are we discipling Christians or are we staying in the good feelings of early Christian walk? ARE WE WILLING to suffer for the sake of the sake of the gospel. For Christ Jesus? So you know that God is near a broken heart, that he blesses those poor in spirit?
The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God. Psalms 51:17
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Matthew 5:3
So.. Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never allow the righteous to be shaken. Psalms 55:22
Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Romans 13:11-14
Let us not remain comfortable in our churches. Let’s be a people willing to suffer for the gospel. Let us not move away from scripture but be honest and willing to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ 2 Corinthians 10:5, be ready and expect to suffer for Christ. Not going to church chasing a good feeling but to worship our creator. Not putting up with watered down Christianity but as a Christ centred, bible people. Authority based church.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:22-33
This is not a chauvinist thing this is the truth of God. Put Christ as the head always. We should not be offended by the word and if we are, there is a problem and we must bring that issue to Christ and, or a friend, Pastor ect. But there are many small things creeping into Christianity. I’m struggling to worship with modern worship music. The lyrics aren’t centred on glorying and worshipping God and what is with playing a loud chorus and teetering our softly? Isn’t that what the world does? No, but let us sing powerfully and joyfully to our creator! The songs are too soft and lovey dovey, I am a MAN of God, not a woman of God. There is a difference have we noticed? This is a deliberate design by the creator, all life is precious to God. This progressive Christianity where we can’t offend anyone and become so easily offended NEEDS TO STOP!!
This world is fallen, this world is broken. We are just passing through this world. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. We will groan in this temporary life. Looking forward to eternity with God in heaven.
For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4
So, staying in 2 Corinthians. Read Romans chapters 7 and 8.. look at it in the context that Paul had been a Christian for 20 years when he wrote Romans, the guy who wrote half of the New Testament! Look when he says what a wretched man I am! Then we’ll look at how 2 Corinthians finishes!
For if I want to boast, I wouldn’t be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. 12:7-8
Now this seems a perfectly reasonable prayer right? We might ask the same thing! That is perfectly justifiable to ask our pain to be taken away. How does the Lord respond?
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 12:9
Wow! Ok so, what is happening here? Paul is sharing his lesson with us! Let’s see how Paul responds!
For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, we will live with him by power the power of God. 2 Corinthians 13:4
So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, THEN I AM STRONG!!
12:10
casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7
How did Christ die? How does Christ live?
How do I live by the power of God? Luke 9:23; I deny myself (my wants, my desires, my flesh) I pick up my cross (leave all my hurt and pain, struggles, grief at the cross. Each day) and follow Jesus (unto death and live in his life)
My eyes are always on the Lord, for he will pull my feet out of the net. Psalms 25:15
let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2